[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 6, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6440-S6443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Climate Change

  Mr. President, this 257th ``Time to Wake Up'' speech reports on my 
trip to Colorado to see how climate change is affecting the Centennial 
State and to learn more about the remarkable action that Coloradans are 
taking to confront climate change.
  Colorado is the 18th State I have visited on my climate road trips. 
Typically, these trips land me in States where people fighting for 
climate action need some bucking up. Often, I remind those people that 
there is hope, even if their State legislature may be captured by 
fossil fuel interests, even if climate change is a dirty word in local 
hangouts. That was not the case in Colorado. In fact, it is a State on 
a major climate change winning streak.
  Coloradans were the ones bucking me up. I saw that right off the bat 
at the Alliance Center in downtown Denver. The center's chief operating 
officer, Jason Page, took me around this LEED-certified space, which is 
part business incubator, part rallying point for an array of 
organizations fighting for climate action in Colorado and throughout 
the country. Jason and his colleagues hosted me and local environmental 
leaders to discuss the work they have done, and they have done a lot.
  Just in the last year, Colorado passed and signed into law seven 
important climate and clean energy bills. They include legislation to 
set targets for cutting the State's climate pollution relative to 2005 
levels by at least 90 percent by 2050. The legislature passed four 
measures to boost the adoption of electric vehicles, and it passed 
bills to help move to new energy-efficient home appliances, to ease the 
transition to renewable energy for Xcel, Colorado's largest utility, 
and to collect long-term climate data so the State can craft even more 
smart legislation to combat climate change and build resiliency to 
climate consequences.
  To hear how Colorado is going to hit its renewable targets, I met 
with Xcel, State public utility commissioners, and Gov. Jared Polis. 
Their message to me was simple: It is a challenge, and we are going to 
do it. They certainly aren't backing away from the challenge. On top of 
the State's renewable goal, Xcel has committed to an 80-percent cut in 
carbon emissions across its portfolio by 2030 and to reach 100 percent 
carbon-free energy by 2050. Xcel, supported by the Colorado Public 
Utilities Commission, is now incorporating the social cost of carbon--a 
key measure of the long-term damage done by carbon pollution--into its 
planning process.
  On top of forward-looking policy, Colorado is fortunate to be a 
leader in developing clean energy technology. For that, I visited 
Panasonic's Pena Station NEXT project, they call it. It is a 
collaboration between the city of Denver, the utility Xcel, the Denver 
International Airport, the State Department of Transportation, and 
Panasonic. The project is designed to show what a smart city powered by 
renewable energy looks like. It includes two megawatts of solar, a 
massive battery storage system, which I am looking at right here, a 
facility to test autonomous vehicles, and an operation center that can 
integrate all that technology for better efficiency.
  At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, I saw some of 
the most advanced wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies 
in the world. This National Lab is testing the next generation of wind 
turbines, hydrogen fuel cells, autonomous vehicles, solar panels, smart 
grid technology, and more. NREL's job isn't just to develop these 
technologies but also to help private industry adopt them, bringing 
clean energy to scale and creating jobs in the process.
  This is me at NREL. I am painting a solar-activated fluid that they 
have come up with onto a plate and instantly generating energy from the

[[Page S6441]]

lamp coming above. As I painted it, you could see the dials come up as 
energy was generated off that freshly painted plate. It was like 
putting nail polish down on a surface. They are doing some pretty 
amazing stuff. At NREL, I could not help but notice a familiar logo, 
TPI Composites, a company that makes top-of-the-line composite 
materials in Rhode Island. Naturally, because NREL needs the best, they 
work with this company with a Rhode Island footprint to develop next-
generation materials. I am proud to report that our Composites Alliance 
of Rhode Island includes TPI. They have a big role in building wind 
turbine blades and other technologies.
  Colorado feels this urgency because the Mountain West is feeling the 
effects of climate change more and more every day. I met with leading 
climate scientists for a briefing at the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, overlooking the Flatirons at the feet 
of the Rocky Mountains. NCAR's Doctors James Done, Laura Reed, Daniel 
Swain, Jackie Schuman, and Bill Mahoney told me about their important 
research into climate change's effects in the West; how vegetation is 
withering; how wildfires grow more frequent, have longer duration and 
are more intense; how hydrology changes as weather patterns shift and 
temperatures rise throughout the region; and how extreme weather events 
like sudden downpours and prolonged droughts are becoming a new 
unfortunate normal.
  In Fort Collins, I met with truly dedicated public servants from 
across the Federal Government who specialize in land management and 
climate adaptation and have gotten together to coordinate their 
efforts. These exceptional public servants spent their careers 
protecting our public lands. They are witnessing firsthand the 
devastation wrought on our public lands by climate change. They 
described to me their battles to safeguard stands of old-growth 
sequoias--a national treasure--and to rebuild beaches and dunes in the 
face of rising seas and stronger oceanic storms and even to cover 
melting glaciers with sheeting to try to help prevent them from melting 
quite so quickly.
  They love these lands. They work all their lives to help and save and 
protect these lands. They do everything in their power to honor and 
serve these lands. The fact that they battle on in spite of the 
heartbreaking pace and severity of the destruction climate change is 
causing is a human inspiration.
  Speaking of inspiration, I closed out my trip with an event organized 
by the group POW--Protect Our Winters--to hear what climate change 
means to the winter sports and outdoor industry. Skiers, snowboarders, 
and industry executives told me about the climate threat to the 
multibillion-dollar winter sports industry in Colorado, which relies on 
plenty of snow and cold weather to thrive. Professional skier Cody 
Cirillo told me:

       I fear there will be no more snow by the end of the 
     century. I fear a whole ski culture will cease to exist. I 
     fear economic impacts on Summit County and all other mountain 
     towns. I fear the loss of an industry that has given me so 
     much. . . . I fear the kids will not get the opportunity to 
     see a first snow, to feel winter's inaugural bite on the 
     nose, and to miss out on so many wonderful lessons.

  These fears are driving Cody and other world-class athletes to speak 
out. He and his fellow POW members aren't giving in; they are speaking 
up.
  There are many reasons Coloradans are acting on climate and 
transitioning their energy mix away from fossil fuels. Colorado has the 
benefit of fossil fuels, but Coloradans want to protect their 
beautiful, natural landscape. They want to sustain their winter sports 
and hospitality industries. They want a healthy, prosperous future for 
their children, and they understand the risks of developing and using 
those fossil fuels. They also recognize that there are strong forces 
coming in the energy market--forces that will shift away from fracked 
natural gas and coal to carbon-free wind and solar. Coloradans know it 
is better to lead that shift than to wait until the bottom drops out.
  We have known for a while that coal is facing big problems. Murray 
Energy, which is a major coal company with cozy ties to the Trump 
administration, just filed for bankruptcy last week. Alarms are going 
off about natural gas, which is a type of fuel that the fossil fuel 
industry touts as less dirty.
  In Boulder, Paul Bodnar, the managing director of the Rocky Mountain 
Institute, highlighted a report RMI issued in September showing just 
how quickly this shift, this cost reduction across the renewable 
spectrum, is going to make the economics of natural gas untenable.
  RMI's report foretells of ``a turning point for the relative 
economics of clean energy resources (including wind, solar, storage; 
energy efficiency; and demand flexibility) versus new gas-fired 
generation.''
  The report continues: ``For the first time, the rapidly falling costs 
of renewables and batteries are allowing optimized combinations of 
these resources . . . to systematically outcompete gas-fired generation 
on a cost basis while providing all the same grid services.'' The 
``same grid services'' means the same reliability and the same 
availability but at a lower cost.
  Here is a graph showing how fast clean energy will overtake gas 
plants.
  This has been the falling cost of clean energy. This is the cost of 
building and operating a new gas plant. This is the cost of operating 
an existing gas plant. So we are now at the crossover point where it is 
cheaper to use renewables--clean energy power--than it is to build new 
natural gas plants.
  Setting aside the pollution and the other extraneous costs, all of 
which economists would call externalities that come with burning 
natural gas, which is the methane leakage, the CO2 from the 
burn--all of it--on even just the heavily subsidized existing natural 
gas pricing, clean energy still beats them right now. They are 
projecting that it is going to go ahead, and by about 2035, it will be 
cheaper to build a new clean energy power facility than it will be to 
continue to feed natural gas into your existing, already built, 
depreciated natural gas facilities. Just on price is where we are 
going. So somebody building natural gas facilities into this projected 
future has a real problem on his hands.
  RMI has found that clean energy resources beat on price alone--on 
price--over 80 percent of proposed gas-fired powerplant capacity, and 
that clean energy will render 70 percent of proposed gas plants 
``uneconomic''--can't compete--just on price by 2035. In other words, 
it will not make sense even to run, let alone build, those uneconomic 
natural gas plants. They will be shuttered, stranded assets, which will 
deal a financial blow to the company or the investors who own them, and 
if the utilities can shove that cost through to their consumers, it 
will leave consumers in the lurch. If over half of your fleet is 
stranded, that is catastrophic for a utility company just on the 
economics.
  It actually gets worse for natural gas in a new investigation by the 
watchdog group Unearthed, based on data from a very respected fossil 
fuel industry firm, the expert consulting firm Rystad. Based on 
Rystad's data, the new report finds that the big oil companies' 
promises to curb the methane emissions from natural gas extraction 
appear to be completely bogus. The report found that the biggest 
industry players, including ExxonMobil and BP, were among the worst 
when it comes to wasting and burning off methane.
  Natural gas is facing a double whammy. First, natural gas is 
worsening our climate crisis faster than we knew, and some of our 
biggest fossil fuel companies are driving the problem.
  Now, while we are finding out how the fossil fuel industry has misled 
us about its methane emissions and about how much leakage and burning 
off there is, we are being treated to the spectacle of one of the 
biggest fossil fuel industry trade groups--the American Petroleum 
Institute--in its launching of a seven-figure ad campaign to convince 
America that ``we're are on it.'' We are America's natural gas 
industry, and we are on it when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
  Well, it is on it not so much, apparently.
  This ad campaign looks like just more fossil fuel industry 
disinformation. It is an industry that just can't seem to help itself 
from saying things that aren't true.
  Anyway, if you pair natural gas's rapidly becoming ``uneconomic'' 
against renewables with emerging data

[[Page S6442]]

showing a much bigger methane problem for the industry, that pairing--
that combined result--is very gloomy for natural gas investors. That is 
why, in getting back to Colorado, it is such a smart move to unhitch 
your energy market from those fuels while you can.
  A savvy move, Colorado.
  Across this country, Americans are already acting on climate. In the 
face of the President's extraordinarily ill-advised decision to pursue 
a departure from the Paris Agreement, States, municipalities, and major 
corporations are all standing up and saying: Nope, we are still in.
  They get the problem that we face, and they get how important it is. 
It is time for us in the Senate to join them in waking up and coming up 
with a solution to this evident problem.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


  Tribute to Joshua Hall, Jennifer Childress, Dawn Wilcox, and Angie 
                                 Wright

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is one of my favorite times during 
the week, when I get to come to the Senate floor--I know it is the 
pages' favorite time--to talk a little bit about Alaska and talk about 
my State and present what we weekly call the ``Alaskan of the Week.''
  It is the opportunity to talk about someone in the community who has 
done something great for their community, for the State, maybe for 
America, and I would like to recognize this great variety of wonderful 
Alaskans, great Americans, whom we have in my State and talk about 
them.
  By the way, I always like to give a little update on what is going on 
in Alaska and to talk to people who are in the Gallery and who are 
watching on TV and encourage them--now is the time to plan your next 
trip to Alaska if you are going to come next summer. But, also, you 
should know that winter, which is coming--it has pretty much come to 
Alaska--is a great time to visit too. It is a winter wonderland. You 
can ski, snowboard, and at end of the day, sit back and drink something 
warm and watch the northern lights dance in the sky. You can't do that 
in many States in our great Nation. So come on up for the trip of a 
lifetime. We want you to come whether it is summer, winter, fall, 
spring; it doesn't matter. You will not be disappointed if you come 
visit us in the great State of Alaska.
  I am going to break the rules a little bit on the Alaskan of the Week 
because I usually recognize one, but today I am going to recognize four 
extraordinary Alaskans. They are four teachers in my State who are the 
recent recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in 
Mathematics and Science Teaching. Joshua Hall is a math teacher at 
Dimond High School in Anchorage and the chair of the math program 
there. Jennifer Childress is also a teacher at Dimond, teaching science 
and engineering courses. She currently teaches 11th and 12th grade 
physics and Advanced Placement physics. Dawn Wilcox teaches second 
grade at Campbell Elementary School in Anchorage, and Angie Wright 
teaches 4th and 5th grade math at Auke Bay Elementary in Juneau, AK.
  We are very, very proud of them. This is a great achievement for all 
four of these wonderful teachers.
  This award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government 
specifically for K-12 science, technology, engineering, mathematics, 
and computer science teaching--something we need more of, not just in 
Alaska but in America. And we need great teachers who can do this, and 
that is what this award recognizes.
  As any State has--Alaska, North Dakota--we have thousands of teachers 
in my State who do such great work day in and day out to make sure our 
next generation is not only educated on the facts but who also 
understand, in the words of the great leader Nelson Mandela, 
``Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the 
world.'' Nelson Mandela said that.
  These four teachers have been working hard every day for years so 
that their students will go out and do just that--change the world; 
make Alaska, America, the world a better place.
  They, as well as our teachers all across the country, all across 
Alaska, certainly have one of the most important and most difficult 
jobs, so we salute all of them, but I want to salute these four 
teachers in a little bit more detail. They have chosen not only to 
master these science, engineering, physics subjects, but to teach it to 
the next generation.
  Despite a slight improvement in the STEM skills of Americans over the 
last 20 years, it is widely recognized that the United States is still 
being outpaced by countries all over the world in these critical 
subject matters.
  Now, more than ever, our country desperately needs skilled Americans, 
skilled professionals, who can innovate for our Nation, who can improve 
our Nation's infrastructure, advance our healthcare system, build the 
tools that defend our country, and ensure our Nation's prosperity and a 
strong economy. We need STEM education.
  There is so much to say about all four of these teachers, but let me 
give you a brief example of how they are teaching the youth of Alaska 
in these critical areas.
  Mr. Hall is a math teacher at Dimond High School who, by the way, has 
former students and fans in my office. This is a bit of a theme. A lot 
of these teachers have taught a lot of my staff right now, including 
Jesse here. Mr. Hall has been an educator for more than 20 years. He 
has been teaching math for the past 14 years at Dimond High, and as the 
department chair, he decided that the school needed an event where math 
students could show and take pride in the skills they are learning.
  He worked with another math teacher to design and organize a 
schoolwide math competition. They just had their fourth annual event, 
and 175 students participated. The audience cheered; students were 
excited. It was a huge deal. Studying math is really cool. It is great. 
Gosh, there were 175 students. So that is Mr. Hall.
  Mrs. Childress is also at Dimond High and also has a big fan base in 
my office of former students, including Jesse, I believe. She has 
taught for over 20 years, 14 of which have been teaching science and 
engineering courses at Dimond.
  She helped found the Engineering Academy at Dimond, and she and 
another teacher developed and ran a program called Smart Girls Rock! 
Smart Girls Rock! exposes freshman and sophomore girls to female 
engineers from Anchorage and encourages young women to pursue STEM 
careers. As a father of three daughters, I know just how important it 
is to do that.
  Here is a fun fact: Mrs. Childress and Mr. Hall have been married for 
23 years, which makes this award all the more special for both of them. 
I would call them a true power couple in Alaska STEM education.
  Miss Wilcox, a teacher from Campbell Elementary, has had a 20-year 
career and has been teaching at Campbell for the past 3 years. Working 
with her colleagues, she created a STEM school at Campbell--the first 
STEM elementary school in Anchorage.
  Again, these are innovators. You can tell these teachers are 
innovators.
  Also, as a project for the Iditarod Teacher in Every Classroom, which 
is a science program based on our famous sled dog race, the Iditarod, 
she worked with another colleague to get their classroom to adopt and 
improve a local park.
  Miss Wilcox's second graders appeared before the school board, the 
community council, and the parks commission to advocate for their idea. 
So not only are they learning STEM, but they are learning civics. For 
their efforts, they were awarded a $20,000 Anchorage Parks Foundation 
matching grant, and the park now has outdoor learning labs, paths, 
signs, and is a joy to visit. So all of you visitors who are going to 
come to Alaska have to make sure you check out this great new 
innovation in our parks.
  Finally, let me talk about Ms. Wright. Ms. Wright has been an 
educator for over 16 years. She began her career teaching in rural 
Alaska, which I view as the heart and soul of our State. For the last 7 
years she taught at Auke Bay in Juneau, where she was born and raised.

[[Page S6443]]

  She is passionate about incorporating place-based knowledge into the 
classroom. She says that every year her students participate in place-
based learning. They pick berries, a traditional part of the Alaska 
Native subsistence lifestyle, in order to gather the data and more 
detailed information about our incredible environments throughout the 
State.
  ``Students in my classroom learn a lot of Alaskan Native languages 
and participate in a Tlingit dance group, performing around southeast 
Alaska.'' She also takes her fourth and fifth grade students on a field 
trip to the muskeg ecosystem to learn how animals adapt to survive in 
different environments.
  ``Teaching in Alaska is a gift and taking advantage of it is 
something I value very much,'' Ms. Wright said. It was, in fact, Mr. 
President, a sentiment expressed by all four of these teachers who won 
this very prestigious award.
  Henry Adams once wrote, ``A teacher affects eternity; he or she can 
never tell where their influence actually stops.'' Think about that. A 
teacher impacts eternity.
  The influence that these teachers have over the lives of so many 
young Alaskans will really never stop. As I mentioned, many staff 
members of my office are direct recipients of this influence, which 
will continue help to grow the next generation of leaders, of workers, 
of thinkers, of doers, and I am sure the next generation of teachers, 
through their example. I see students who, in turn, will continue to 
make our State and our country the great places that they are. We 
cannot thank these teachers enough for what they have done.
  So I want to congratulate Mr. Hall, Ms. Childress, Ms. Wilcox, and 
Ms. Wright for all they have done for this great award, for all they 
continue to do, for your dedication to your profession, for your 
passion for math and science, and for your commitment to Alaska's next 
generation.
  And, of course, I want to congratulate them on being this week's 
Alaskans of the Week.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.